Monday, January 07, 2013

NHS - No healthy solution

StaffordHospital isn’t unique, it’s just the most tragic (so far).
How anyone can revere the National Health Service is beyond me. It’s a tragic
farce. In an ideal world we would dismantle the whole thing and start again. At
the very least we should put patients in charge of the way it’s run – instead of
the vested interests of doctors, consultants and trade union leaders.

My father was
sent to the clinical decision unit at about 2pm today and finally saw a doctor
at 5.30. This is, I suppose, what you would class as an acceptable standard of
service. I would not.

According to
the consultant on duty – who I finally tracked down because nobody was
interested in examining my father – the doctors were overwhelmed with work
because there had been 37 admissions since 9 am and only five doctors on duty.

By my
calculations that is one doctor to just over 7 patients admitted in the course
of 8 hours. This works out at better than one patient per doctor per hour. I
accept there are other patients the doctors also have to see but even so it
does not seem an excessive workload to handle.

One patient
per doctor per hour is not overwhelmingly demanding.

That being
so, and given that the patients do not all arrive together but over an 8 hour
period, how is it possible for a newly-admitted patient to be ignored for maybe
two and a half hours and finally only see a doctor once a protest has been made
about this neglect?

Why is the
system so chaotic? For instance, the consultant said they needed to find my
father's notes but they didn't - I was able to inform him the notes were
already on the ward and the nurse on duty knew exactly where they were. Did he
assume the notes were lost? If so, why? Is that what usually happens?

The planning
and deployment of nursing staff was completely chaotic. Why does the hospital
provide no doubt expensive computers for staff when everything is done on
pieces of paper and - to me quite unbelievably - a white board with various
notes in different coloured ink?

To add
insult to injury, when he was asked if he’d like some food, he said he could
manage some soup. So why was the soup delivered to the patient without anybody
bothering to mention it to draw it to his attention? It was left beside the bed
for some time before anyone noticed. When they did, it had become cold and
congealed. No wonder people starve to death on the NHS.

Finally, my
elderly mother was with me in the hospital despite the fact that she, too, is
unwell. I asked the doctor, when she eventually arrived, if she would mind
examining my mother quickly while she was there because I thought she could do
with some antibiotics. This was a request too far. She told me she was not
allowed to examine patients who had not been officially admitted and that if I
was concerned about my mother I should take her to the Accident and Emergency
Department next door. Given the waiting time that would involve, I concluded
the best thing to do was to take her home and put her to bed. But, whatever the
rules and regulations you feel the need to impose, is this really any way to
serve patients and the public?

Having had no reply, I sent another e-mail:

24 hours on he has been transferred to another ward
but in all that time he has not once been seen by a doctor. Is this usual? Is
this reasonable? When will someone be bothered to check if he is OK?

and a third:

I am looking forward to a response to my e-mails
within the next 24 hours.

On January 2 I got this:

Good morning Mr Hastilow

Thank you for your e-mail sent to the
Patient Experience inbox, I am sorry that you are not happy with the service
provided to your father at the QueenElizabethHospitalBirmingham
which has given you a need to bring these issues to our attention.

There are several ways in which this can
be dealt with, I can forward your concern directly onto our PALS department
(Patient Advice and Liaison Services), PALS will be able to look into this
issue on your behalf and respond to you once they have obtained information
from the relevant management, alternatively, I can pass your information
directly onto the manager for that particular ward and department to ask that
they feedback to you directly (If you do not require feedback please let me
know.)

If you would be kind enough to advise
which way forward you would like to go with this that would be most helpful.

I hope the above is satisfactory to you
and if we can be of any further assistance in the future please do not hesitate
to contact us.

Kind regards

Mrs Sue Higgins

Patient Experience Facilitator

I replied: I think the PALS department would be
appropriate.

They responded:

Thank you
again for your prompt reply and the information that you have provided. I have
already forwarded your previous email to the PALS Team who were waiting to hear
of your preferred method of communication. I have copied the team into this
email so that they will be in contact with as soon as they can.

Mrs. Sue
Higgins

Patient
Experience Facilitator

I said:I would prefer
to hear from you by e-mail

They
responded:I would like to introduce my self my name is Dawn McKenna and I will be
the pals officer looking into your concerns raised by your email on Sunday. I
have escalated your original email to the Matron and Ward Managers of CDU,
would you be kind enough to let me have a direct contact number for you that I
can pass onto Matron who will be wanting to speak to you direct.

Dawn C McKenna
Patient Advice & Liaison Officer

I sent them a mobile number but said I would prefer
communications to be in writing as I was a journalist and may wish to report on
the situation in due course. I then got this:

I am writing in relation to your recent
emails regarding the care received by your father. I was sorry to learn of your
concerns about the service at QEH.

The matter has been passed to me as you
have requested a response in writing and we will therefore be dealing with this
as a formal complaint. We are obliged to seek your father’s consent, both to
the complaint and to the sharing of his information with you. Ahead of our writing
to him, I would be grateful if you would confirm that he is aware of your
contact to us and that our letter will be on its way to him.

Once we have received consent, we will be
in a position to complete our review and respond to you. Please let us know if
you have any questions regarding this email.

Dave Beech
Patient Services Co-ordinator

I said: He does not know of my complaint and is
far too ill (still) to be bothered with this. Please do not communicate with
him and only communicate with me. I am asking for some answers to questions; I
cannot believe you need a formal procedure for that.

They said: Thank you for your reply.
In the circumstances you have detailed we will not make contact with your
father, although the Trust’s response to you will be limited.

We are dealing with your enquiry through
the Complaints Process as it is the Trust’s mechanism for investigating and
responding formally to concerns raised about its services. We will contact you
again as soon as possible.

Dave Beech
Patient Services Co-ordinator

I asked how long this would
take and so far I haven’t had an answer, though it is amazing that so far three
people have been involved in my complaint – two more than the number of doctors
who could be bothered to care for my father.Later... answer arrives:

We are
hoping to receive information from the clinical team very shortly, following
which there will be a review of the information at a senior level prior to the
Trust responding to you. We hope to be able to finalise this matter within the
next few weeks, but will contact you if for any reason there is an unforeseen
delay